Model UN Club Hosts Conference for Middle School Girls

Less than two months into the school year, the Model United Nations (MUN) club already had two successful events to its credit. The club, one of the largest at the school with more than 50 members, held its inaugural middle school conference on Oct. 21 and participated in CBA’s middle school conference on Nov. 3.

The MUN club’s first middle school conference invited sixth, seventh and eighth grade girls from the area to participate in a learning Model UN conference at Trinity Hall. Although typical MUN conferences have participants debate actual issues happening in the world, the club decided to have attendants discuss fun and lighthearted topics in the spirit of Halloween.

“We chose non-traditional topics because we really wanted to encourage middle schoolers to spend their Saturday morning learning about Model United Nations without it seeming like another mundane day of school,” said senior co-president Gina Rienzo. “The lighter topics definitely created a more comfortable environment because it allowed the girls to channel their creativity when developing solutions to the issues we proposed.”

One of the four rooms had a superhero theme, where each girl was assigned a superhero and given the task of taking on her superhero’s persona. Using their new identity they had to determine the fate of villains that were creating trouble in the superhero world. Three other rooms focused on the theme of a zombie apocalypse for the older and more experienced girls. Participants were given a country and, by analyzing their assigned country’s views, they needed to decide on a common solution to the zombie apocalypse.

“It was pretty inspiring to see these younger girls wanting to already take action on the problems going on around us,” senior Julia Henning said. “I could see from the beginning of the debate to the end how much they learned in that short amount of time, from parliamentary procedures to global awareness.

Faculty co-advisors Jennifer Havens and Nicole Sadowski gave full credit to the club members for the conference’s success. “Mrs. Sadowski and I could not be prouder of our Model UN girls,” Havens said. “This was a totally student-planned event. From the original idea to planning sessions with Mrs. Kiernan to the execution on the day of the conference, our girls were dedicated to its success. The middle school students who attended learned how the UN works, got to experience a committee room and had a lot of fun. It was a great day for Trinity Hall.”

Less than two weeks after organizing and hosting this event, experienced junior and senior members of the club helped with CBA’s middle school MUN conference, which mirrored an actual Model UN conference where pressing, real-world issues were disputed.

“By being involved in CBA’s conference, we were able to strengthen our knowledge about Model UN and hopefully inspire middle schoolers to have the same passion as we do about global affairs,” said senior co-president Catherine Loder.

Model UN is planning to host and participate in future conferences. In February juniors and seniors will participate in a conference in Boston while freshman and sophomores will attend a conference in Philadelphia in March. A novice conference is also in the works for CBA and Trinity Hall students.